Play and record keys

[Tracy Eastwood]

Is there a way of simulating the play and record function available in Client access, in Genie

[Scott Klement]

I don't know of anything that works exactly like a record/play option.

Remember, Genie is a graphical application running in a web browser. It can have all sorts of things such as graphics, dropdowns, charts, buttons, checkboxes, etc that simply don't exist in 5250, and are often mouse-driven. What you are really looking for, here, is to automate the full use of the web browser including mouse clicks, keyboard, and much more.

You could look to see if any of the browsers has a plugin like this -- but I'm not aware of one. The closest thing I know of are tools like GreaseMonkey (and other, similar tools for other browsers) that let you write scripts to automate pages.

Most customers don't need a full record/play scenario. When they ask for this sort of thing, what they really have is a small number (maybe a dozen or two... often less) macros that they want to replicate. In that case, you could develop something using JavaScript code that replicates the macro behavior. This could be done using features such as get() and changeElement() to see/change what's on the screen, pressKey() to press function keys, and even multiStepAction() if you have a series of actions that need to be carried out in sequence.

Alternately, there's also the Genie Macro capability. This is a little bit different since it runs server-side (whereas JavaScript runs in the browser) and you wouldn't see the actions being carried out. But, in some cases, that's what you want.

So... nothing exactly like record/play, but lots of other possibilities that may work depending on your circumstance.

[Tracy Eastwood]

Thanks Scott, I'll look at your suggestions in more detail